When Alterans hide
by stephenopolos
Summary: What happens when the surviving member of an alteran family that has been hiding on earth sees atlantis' fireball in the sky? Oneshot, with a chance for continuation. This went farther than I thought, but i've run out of motivation. Open for adoption. Post link to story in a review if you continue it.
1. Chapter 1

It's been two months since the massive fireball entered the atmosphere. Surprisingly there have been no reports of tidal waves or other impact sites. I expected the fireball would be a disaster on par with an extinction level event but strangely enough the fireball just disappeared. I was on a cruise ship when I saw it. I kept quite who would believe me a giant metal snowflake falling from the sky?

I'm sitting in my apartment staring out at the view of the golden gate bridge. It's a melancholy sight, the clouds obscuring the sun everything shrouded in a misty blue grey haze. Something strange is happening out over the water. I look out and see a flash roughly egg shaped maybe. A few seconds later a red beam of light shoots out into the sky. And for a second I glimpse a city on the water.

"I'm imagining things" I tell myself collapsing back into my sofa facing the window. But no the beam of light was there. I look again into the mist. It's hazy and I doubt anyone else is looking for this. But I see lightning flashing in the background. Grabbing my binoculars I go back to the large living room window staring out into the bay.

Holding them up to my eyes I catch glimpses of lightning striking tall towers and a snowflake sitting out on the water. I want to be there so badly. But I don't know how. It's a city I've dreamt about. A story passed down from my grandparents and their grandparents. A city that was far away which was hidden in an ocean covered by the waters in a single instant to protect her from a powerful enemy.

There are few things left from my family, a few priceless artifacts that have been carefully hidden away. I think now may be the time to go inspect some of them.

My grandmother used to tell me stories about how grandfather was a direct descendent of merlin. I enter the room where we kept the family treasure hidden. A small shelf displaying varied objects. A stone black with gold lettering in blocky shapes. I notice one of the objects is glowing. I pick it up and thing about the city. Startled I almost drop it as above the object a holographic map appears displaying the bridge and the bay and just outside a city in the water. I sit and think how do I turn this thing off. The glow suddenly disappears taking the display with it.

'Brilliant' I think what else can this do. Can it get me to the city? Faintly I hear something but I'm not hearing it, it's like it's in my head. Like a whisper from a mother welcoming a long lost child home. I can hear the city calling me, or is that responding to my call. I look at the shelf again there are these matching wrist guards. I put them on and see a button on them I press the one on my left wrist and the world shifts blue for a second then clears. Odd… I look up there's a slight reflection on the glass shelf but I'm not there.

I run to the bathroom and look in the mirror, nothing! I press the button on the wrist guard again and after another weird lighting shift, red this time, suddenly I'm visible again. I wonder what the other one does. I look at it, pressing the button I hear a faint hum in the back of my mind feels like a tickle. Walking to the door I go to open it and my hand goes right through. 'Cool,' I think. I test this out and spend the next ten minutes walking through doors in my home before pressing the button again and hearing the hum die.

I've toyed with all of these trinkets before but none of them ever showed any signs of life. Maybe the presence of the city in the harbor calling my name somehow reactivated or repowered them. I wonder what other devices are on the shelf. I look again and find something that looks like a mouth piece attached to a short cylinder. I don't even want to think about how many relatives over the years have put their mouths on that. The best one I see is something that looks like a head piece it's fairly simple. Consisting of a small glass piece attached to a metal frame that has thus far proven unbreakable, it looks like it fits around the head with the glass piece sliding in front of an eye. I pick it up and place it over my head and surprisingly it fits but then I feel it shift a little and it seems to reshape itself more snugly around my head. The eye piece lights up briefly and it looks like a targeting scanner from a video game.

I look again at the shelf. One more item a small angular device that looks like it fits in the palm of the hand. Pointy end away. I pick it up and the targeting scanner seams to detect that it's in my possession blinking with a crosshair now, and a little display with the blocky letters. I point at a plant in the corner and think stun. A small bluish charge shoots out of the end of the device covering the plant in electrical arcs for a split second before dissipating. Well that was cool.

There is one more device in the room. It looks odd; it's grey and has an opening. There's a light coming out of it now. It never did that before. I've looked into it many times and seen nothing but darkness. But this time it's glowing inside. I step up to the device and look inside and suddenly the thing has my head in a grip I can break and I feel like it's looking through my skull for something. I can't move and I'm starting to panic but then it releases me.

I look at the stone again and words spring into my head almost latin sounding. But it actually means something. I pick up the device. Mentis transitia I get the vague notion of it being a device that can switch consciousness with someone in possession of a similar device. I put it back on the shelf. I'm not in any hurry to experience that particular process.

I'm not rich, but I'm not exactly poor. I spend the next day purchasing a few items. Something tells me the items will last underwater if not left there for too terribly long. So I've made a plan to get some scuba diving equipment. It feels odd being able to walk around without anyone seeing me, even more so walking through things.

There's a door in my head, and every now and then another bit of information slips out into my conscious mind. I went out with the tactical head gear the other day, that's what I'm calling it now. The display showed me the city clear as day. It also showed me the ships flying to and from it. I reached out to one of them with my mind and saw it veer off for a moment before the pilot snatched the controls back. His mind felt simpler; less sensitive I don't think he even noticed me.

Tomorrow I'm going to try my plan I bought scuba equipment and a waterproof pack. I'm going for a swim.

* * *

4 am. I woke up early, no, really early. Guess I'm nervous. I've put on my wetsuit. The tactical headgear informs me that it will be capable of operating underwater for a day without damage, and if it gets dried off properly afterwards it will be able to do so again.

I slip on the cloaking and walk through stuff gauntlets and activate them, and after clearing my way through obstacles I deactivate the walk through walls wrist guard, awkwardly walking out to the bay with all my equipment I jump in. I've got a short amount of air in the tank probably 2 hours but it should be enough to get me there. I swim along the tactical display in front of my eye showing me what to avoid.

There are other scuba divers, and a few ships the display paints them all. After about 50 minutes of swimming and avoiding I reach the edge of where the display tells me the city is. I start swimming up and finally passing through an invisible line the city becomes visible to both eyes instead of just the tactical display.

I press the phase button when I'm a short way away. There are some doors or something on the end of this pier underwater. It's interesting. They look recently repaired. I pass right through the wall and find myself a flooded ship dock. My brain tells me the ships are navicula porta. I swim to the control room passing through the door and then falling as the other side is empty of water. I disable the phase then activate the control to drain the bay. It's stuck but there goes that door again telling me how to fix things. The dock begins to drain. I'm still cloaked. And the city is louder than ever. I can hear these people some of them expertly asking the city questions other not so expertly kludging their way through its systems.

Atlantis, I breathe stripping off my gear I put on the clothes I brought with me in the waterproof bag. Strange clothes I've never worn anything like them but the head sucker in my hidden room made them after I queried about the city. Seems the only way I'd get on at this point is if I could legitimately convince them I was an Alteran, it helps being of Alteran descent but the device had to rewrite some of my dna to bring me back to full Alteran status. There is one more thing I pull out of the bag, it looked like a strange stained glass ornament of some sort but now I know what it is. It's a potentia. A fully powered one, actually more than that it's an experimental model that Merlin fixed up before disappearing. It took him 20 years in front of a black hole with some rather sensitive equipment doing fine calibration to do this. The potentia is blue with white and red crystalline shapes around the edges.

The device in the wall at my old home had told me this was the equivalent of three orange ones, I quickly made my way to the power room and almost laughed at the reactors they had powering the device. I tapped a few controls ejecting the depleted potentia. There is one that still had some power but the other two were completely gone. I pull them out and replace one of them with my blue one, pushing it in grinning. This will be a nice surprise for the cities new guardians.

Using Moros' personal command code I gave myself a command code and ID with root access as a city administrator. Then pulled up the schematics of the potentia or ZPM as they'd taken to calling them and forwarded the necessary instructions to the one the city told me was called Rodney.

I look down at my white Alteran robes and the Alteran phaser for lack of a better term. Well time to become visible.

I press the button on the cloak reappearing. Almost grinning as the alarm sounds to inform the city that I'm in the power room. I press the button to walk through the wall as the door closes then I do just that walking through the wall I proceed to the control room. An interesting side effect of the walk through things wrist guard is that bullets and energy weapons pass right through me. This will be fun I think. I walk up to the stargate. Just last month I would never have dreamed such a device existed. Now I would be claiming some portion of my inheritance. As I reached the gate I asked the city to raise the control pedestal. Placing my hand on it, I cleared my throat.

"Who's the current leader of the city?" I called out.

"I am," a most irritating balding man leaned over the balcony. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry about this interruption to the normal routine, I'm just checking with atlantis on a few things." I replied, while this was going on the city had gleefully welcomed me opening up in my mind like a little kid welcoming a best friend but also like a mother welcoming a child at the same time. It told me of the last time this pedestal had been activated, how annoying the others where how they kicked out her new friends. It also told me their names.

"and who are you?" he demanded glaring at me.

"I'm sorry about my relatives Mr. Woolsey. You've done a remarkable job of keeping Atlantis safe. She wants to thank you. Ten thousand years of sleeping beneath the ocean made her restless."

"Oh sorry," I paused, thinking, the database had given me a list of Alteran names. I was going to shed my earth name and identity, but I hadn't really picked a name, I asked the city to pick one for me, it obliged less than a millisecond latter gleefully christening me, Aikino son of Moros. "I'm Aikino son of Moros"

I instructed the city to plant records of a stasis pod holding me in one of the hidden labs. "I'm staying on the city. It would rather kick all you off before letting me go. But I've assured her that it won't be necessary. I've been in a stasis chamber upgraded with a time dilation field in one of the hidden labs." I lied smoothly.

"You can have control of the city back now." I said stepping away from the console telling the city to hide it again.

The others were understandably upset over my sudden appearance, especially a few of the marines who seeing me had tried to shoot me after I hadn't stopped.


	2. Chapter 2 - Thank me for the ZPM later

"You can thank me for the ZPM later." he yelled over his shoulder walking down the hall. "That is what you people are calling them isn't it? Though I must say, Potentia is much more elegant."

Richard Woolsey was going to have a headache, not to mention a lot of paperwork. He turned towards the team sitting there. "Well why didn't we know he was here. And check that ZPM out that he was talking about."

Rodney sat flabbergasted. His computer had frozen for a split second then a file showed up marked "potentia" in nice capital letters. On top of that it was already translated. He pulled up the city power levels it showed well over the levels that should have been even with three mostly charged ZPMs and he knew the one half charged zpm and the few naquadah generators wouldn't give that much power.

"I need to get down to the power room" he muttered.

* * *

Woolsey queried from behind Rodney. "What can you tell me?"

"That blue white module is storing three times the amount of energy a normal ZedPM should have."

"So, He may really be an Ancient?" Woolsey looked skeptical. "He just waltzed in plugged in an unknown power source into the city, then called up the city control and lockdown console from the floor did nothing with it then returned the city to us."

"Look I'm not sure about him either, but you should see my computer." Rodney grabbed his laptop swinging it around showing the open file on Potentia there where some very advanced mathematical equations next to a clearly labeled in English no less diagram of a ZPM from inside out with helpful notes indicating material composition of its constituent parts.

"It also says we're both stupid and weak technologically as all ZedPMs are capable of recharging though the process involves massive amounts of energy being funneled into it from collectors."

"Basically if we plugged in something on the order of a hundred Mark V Naquadah generators in parallel would be capable of breaching the subspace pocket and recharge the module." Rodney said his head spinning. "Of course there has to be some kind of interface and special equipment to prevent overloads and to force the flow of energy into the module. It also helps if we don't completely deplete one."

"So the blue one is a real ZPM and its safe?" Woolsey asked ignoring most of this babbling.

"As far as I can tell completely." Rodney affirmed tapping a few buttons on his laptop.

"Why didn't we detect it on the city before?"

* * *

Woolsey didn't like the implications, a real ancient living in the city. He didn't want to run the risk of the ancient changing his mind and deciding that they hadn't done a good job of keeping the city intact and that he'd try to kick them out. So he called a staff meeting.

"I don't know, I kinda like the guy," Sheppard was leaning back in his chair. He hadn't put his feet up on the table yet, mainly because of the look Woolsey had given him at the start of the meeting when He had walked in and seen Sheppard's feet already up on the table.

"We don't know anything about him." Teyla sat with her arms crossed. She was being very diplomatic about the whole thing.

"Well he gave us a supercharged ZPM that kind of makes me want to at least be friends."

"My hands are tied; the IOA wants him captured and interogated. They want to try the anti-prior devices in case he has similar abilities."

* * *

I walked out of my room headed to the mess, my stomach was growling. There was a group of marines waiting for me in the hallway guns pointed at me. No one fired. I proceeded down the corridor when I felt a tickle in the back of my head. It was growing something in front of me was causing it, curious.

A telepathic interference field, interesting, it was only blocking a specific frequency of thought and seemed limited in power. Probably designed for someone with limited telekinetic abilities I concluded. I asked the city if there was anyone down the corridor, she sent pulled a map up in front of my eyes. It wasn't actually there, not holographic, it was inside my head but my brain interpreted it as being in front of me.

There were three groups of blinking lights sitting in connecting hallways. I clasped my hands together and then quickly tapped the button on my right wrist guard. I continued walking down the hallway. These Alteran pajamas were quite comfortable and the looked so professional.

Passing the first hallway I didn't even bother looking at them as they fell in line behind the escort already behind me. I neared the second hallway as the third group came rushing out of the third hallway holding wraith stunners. I grinned, "All this just for me?"

Atlantis told me this group had just recently arrived, so they hadn't seen me walk through the stun blasts. This would be amusing.

I ignored them for the most part and just continued forward. The second group tried firing stun blasts at me but they just passed right through and hit the ceiling and wall on the other side. I continued walking straight towards the group not even looking at them.

I could imagine what they felt as I completely ignored them. Walking right through their fire as if I were a ghost probably scared the pants off them.

There was a limit though. My cloak and phase options would only last a day before needing to be turned off so the city could recharge them. I got lucky they even turned on the first time with how little power the city had been running on, my former home's proximity to the city was probably the only thing that let them charge at all. I purposely made sure I walked through one of the in the third group that was trying to halt my progress.

The reaction I got was priceless!

"He just walked through ME!" The corporal yelled. "Forget this Shit." He said dropping his gun.

I almost broke down into a laughing fit in the hall right there. I barely managed to suppress the laughter letting a small smile briefly show on my face I could allow that much of a reaction on my part since my back was to them now.

'Hey, Atlantis, what are they doing for food?' I queried the city.

'They are using the main kitchens to cook and prepare animal and vegetable matter for consumption.' Atlantis responded there was a bit of humor in the tone

'What haven't they figured out?' I asked the city knowing it was amused at their manner of obtaining sustenance.

'Food synthesizers are available from the alcoves just inside the main cafeteria. One only need specify the Alteran name of the food desired for it to be prepared and brought to the alcove.' The city almost laughed.

'How easy would it be to add foods to that database?' I asked.

'Simple just bring the prepared dish to the alcove and provide the Alteran command phrase Save pattern followed by the name of the food' the city responded.

'Can you give me the name of a food with a sweat fruit sauce over a meat with a vegetable side?'

'Sure' the city responded giving me three different foods, and a mental picture of each one.

'So how does the city prepare the food?'

'Materials are taken from the surrounding ocean broken down into base molecules and stored for use, when needed the required molecules are sent to the alcove for molecular recombination into the desired pattern.'

This city hasn't had anyone to talk with for far too long, I thought as I neared the mess hall.

Since I was still out of phase I told the city not to bother opening the doors along the way when I neared them and walked right through. By this time my entourage was several doorways behind me. I received a few glances from my disregard for the closed door that I'd just gone through but most of them after getting their looks in went back to eating.

I walked up to the first column with an alcove in it and said the name of the dish that looked like Orange chicken with some kind of purple and blue leaf salad. The alcove lit up making a brief noise before a slightly off sounding Asgard beam deposited the dish and utensils in the previously empty alcove.

I looked at the startled expressions around me and with a blank face said. "What?" Mentally I pushed the button on my phase shifting wrist guard before grabbing the plate.

"How come we didn't know about those?" said one of the scientists sitting at table.

"You didn't ask. Also you don't know the names of any Alteran foods." I said taking a seat next to one of the large windows with my back to the window so I could keep an eye on the door.

As long as the city remained cloaked and I didn't have one of those tags all the personnel wore I would be safe from being snatched out by an Asgard beam.

Just as I was starting to get the hang of the Alteran eating utensils and tasted the food, which by the way tasted nothing like orange chicken, though, it did taste good, Sheppard walked in and sat down across from me. "Hello John Sheppard." I said between a mouthful of food.

"What is that?"

"Avum ce Fructu, and blattea moretum roughly translated bird with fruit and purple salad. The Lanteans weren't very inventive with their food names."

"You referred to them as Lanteans, why?"

"Well technically I'm not a Lantean, I'm an Alteran, and honestly I'm a little disappointed. We expected more from the Lanteans than cowardice and running. Not to mention from what the city tells me their ships were, the rather pointless little love boats." I was stretching the truth a bit here. Sure my DNA now matched that of an Alteran before from before the plague, sure it would have been closer to that of a Lantean before I stuck my head in that terminal back in my apartment. But it did leave the notes of the Alterans who had used it before becoming my grandparents. Most of which had been safely tucked away in the back of my brain. All of which backed up my statements.

"Pointless little love boats! Those things have better shields and the drone weapons are more powerful than anything we currently field." Sheppard looked wounded at my characterization of the Lantean ships. "You mean those things were weak compared to what they could have used?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. They spent many years removing most of the weapons systems as they feared them too barbaric and felt they sent the wrong message when meeting with new civilizations."

John looked at my food a little hungrily, "Is that any good? I didn't think the kitchen had any of that purple stuff left in stock, and I don't recognize the meat."

"Delicious, if you want some," I said pointing to the alcove in the pillar that I'd used, "just go over to that alcove and say, Avum ce fructu ne blattea moretum"

He gave me a look before hesitantly going to do just that. He came back a moment later with a plate of the same food and a glass of water. I hadn't realized he knew the Alteran word for water. He got lucky the city decided it liked him enough to put it in a glass since I knew he hadn't asked for that as well.

"So, what did you do before you decided to annoy Woolsey yesterday?"

"Not much actually, I'm fairly young for an Alteran and I hadn't taken my aptitude test, before being shoved into stasis."

"Aptitude test?"

"A test designed to find strengths and weaknesses as well as the field of study that would be most beneficial and enjoyable. I plan on scheduling it with the city as soon as she has the room activated and repaired."

"Wait the city can repair things?"

"How do you think it lasted ten thousand years beneath the ocean? Of course it can repair things. But it needs power to do so. Normally it would repair damage automatically but when your people arrived among other things that system was shut off to save power and never reactivated until the city detected me."

"By the way I'm thinking about activating the AI portion of the city so you can get things done easier but I'm going to need help building and installing holo-emitters. Technology which I know the Asgard gave you."

"mmph," John nodded around a mouthful, "This is really good, wait did you say AI and holo-emitters?"

"Yeah, the city has been operating on a limited AI since the Lanteans received it. I've restored some of the higher functions and automation. But I'm holding off on the rest of the subroutines until holo emitters can be placed so the cities avatar can interact better."

"You mean we could have just asked the city for information all this time?"

"Well you have been asking it for information just not much and not precisely enough for the right answers, also you kind of turned off most of the AI when you arrived, not to mention you don't have permission for most of the database aside from that nifty little root hack your computers use."

"That's another thing, how are you so fluent with English?"

"I lied, promise you can keep it to yourself and not talk with woolsey or anyone else?"

John nodded, so I leaned over and whispered, "I've been living on earth, and I'm pretty sure you're related to me, at least a second or third cousin."


	3. Chapter 3

_I'm sitting here mentally kicking myself because I lost half of this chapter when I forgot to save and someone closed it on me. It was probably a blessing though because what I had down was rather ridiculous. Oh and then there was the problem with the alternative chapter 2 I almost posted but then decided not to because that would have been fanwank. If anyone wants to read that I might post it in its own story. _

* * *

"That's another thing, how are you so fluent with English?"

"Promise you can keep it to yourself and not talk with woolsey or anyone else?"

John nodded, so I leaned over and whispered, "I lied, I grew up on earth, and I'm pretty sure you're related to me, at least a second or third cousin."

* * *

"So, I'm an alien."

"No, not exactly, if anything all humans on this planet are aliens if your definition of alien is not having originated from the planet you're currently on, besides, if Alterans where truly alien compared to humans then intermarriage wouldn't be possible."

Sheppard coughed, "Intermarriage?"

"Yes, intermarriage, that irregularly strong expression of Alteran genes didn't come from nowhere." Aikino said as he poked his finger at John's forehead.

Sheppard tried to jerk away from the touch but couldn't, after a second he felt something nudging at his mind. 'What are you doing?'

'Poking around, what do you think?' Aikino's response came back as a thought.

'Why?'

'Well Atlantis is bored and needs someone other than me to talk to, so I'm finishing the activation process of your mostly dormant genes.'

'How can a city be bored?'

'Easily, she sat on an ocean floor for ten thousand years, there are bound to be a few cobwebs.'

Aikino sat back looking at John he'd barely had his hand there for twenty seconds at the most. "I wouldn't tell Woolsey you can talk to the city now. The IOA might decide they want you if they can't have me. Not like they'll be able to tell anything the majority of Alteran abilities come more from mental willpower then genetics though the genes help."

"Gee thanks," Sheppard took another bite of his food before attempting to follow the instructions Aikino had left in his head.

'Hello Sheppard, I've tried talking to you before but you never responded.' Sheppard looked surprised.

"You've heard the city's AI before haven't you?" Aikino's eyes narrowed at John after hearing the city say this. It wasn't so much a question as a statement.

"Well, maybe. Mostly when sitting in the control chair. But every now and then I felt uneasy around certain labs in the city, most of them ended up causing nasty problems whenever Rodney or one of the other scientists started poking around. I figured it was just me."

John Sheppard was the perfect example of why Alterans took aptitude tests before finally settling into their chosen field. He had a mind for math but he fit in better as a tactical leader which meant he was much happier when doing than sitting and thinking, far more content when protecting others than when only protecting his own skin. Perhaps this more than anything else is what made him the most uneasy sitting there talking with Aikino.

* * *

"Ike?" Ren called out opening the door to the house her family had owned for so long. That was odd, he was usually always home, "Oh, little brother! I'm home!" she continued, walking into the living room after closing the door behind her. _Huh_, she thought looking around; her brother had never been one for neatness, and the house was spotless.

Ever since their parents had chosen to go off on some quest for enlightenment after their last sons eighteenth birthday, he'd just stopped doing much of anything. He'd been obsessed for a short time with the stash of family artifacts but then even that had faded and all he'd done since was stay home and read. He did stay physically fit, it had become habit to get up every morning and exercise his muscles preventing them from being useless. But beyond that he just hadn't applied himself anywhere.

She looked around taking in the details of the room. She decided to check the family safe, her grandfather had said something about it being shielded from prying eyes and that only family would be able to open it. Maybe he was in there renewing an interest in the odd artifacts her family had collected.

The first thing she noticed after turning on the light was that several things were missing from the shelves, the second thing was that the large device mounted in the wall her grandfather had called a repository was open and a light was blinking within. She walked over to it and started to look into it when it grabbed her head.

'Ren, if you're getting this, then I've gone to the floating city hidden in the harbor.' Her brother's voice echoed in her head. 'I've taken a few of the artifacts that activated once it appeared. The repository can construct some for you as well. Meet me there.'

The voice disengaged leaving the headsucker still grabbing her head. It didn't disengage instead it started the same process it had on Aikino, first upgrading her physiology replacing and activating dormant Alteran genes, then providing a history lesson and basic information dump about how to use her new abilities.

First thing she did after waking up on the floor was to query the repository about her family, It opened logs going back several generations, her ancestors would marry have children then their oldest child would receive the gene corrections required to keep the lifespan, abilities and mental capacity of their ancestors, they would live for a time studying and learning before marrying and repeating the process. A generation or two back the repository had gone into low power mode, informing them that it could no longer update their genetic structure or construction abilities though it could provide the information for a time longer.

She looked at the log accessing the information that it had gained from Atlantis when it connected to it after the city had returned, downloading updates and information gathered. Her eyes widened at the information about the wraith in Pegasus. She instructed the repository to construct a set of Alteran robes, the wristguards, tactical headset, and a rebreather. She was going to cuff her brother for not waiting for her.

* * *

Rodney sat in Woolsey's office across from Woolsey. Woolsey was being his typical holier than thou self and Rodney was being annoying and difficult as usual. General Jack O'Neill was leaning against the wall looking out the window at the control room and stargate.

"What would it take Mr. Woolsey for us to get permission to go back to Pegasus now that we have the fully powered equivalent of three ZedPMs in one?"

"Well, the IOA won't want Atlantis to leave while it is the only means of controlling the drone weapons. Not to mention the information locked away in her database."

Rodney looked thoughtful before asking confirmation "So, a copy of the database and a replacement for the chair from the outpost in Antarctica?"

"Those would be the two main points, yes."

Neither one of them would admit but they missed the action, the felt their mission incomplete and knew they wraith had to be stopped. Woolsey knew if Atlantis remained on earth much longer the IOA would seek someway to replace him claiming that he would work better elsewhere in the organization as they would try to maneuver someone more in line with their ideals into the command seat of Atlantis.

The general looked thoughtful for the moment. "How hard do you think it would be to get them to agree to those conditions Woolsey?"

"Not very, they're currently under the impression that Atlantis having the only operational chair can't be flown without it which is true, but also that because of this we won't be able to directly reverse engineer the chair to create a new one for the Antarctic outpost. The other point about the database, they're even more certain it would take a significant amount of time and resources to fully duplicate the Atlantis database for earth."

"Good, think we can get them to agree to those two main points as being the only things preventing Atlantis from continuing the Pegasus mission?"

"I take it you'll want me with you on this one."

"How understanding of you Mr. Woolsey," the general confirmed.

"I'm going to go see if I can find our resident ancient and see what he can do to help." Rodney said before walking out of the room.

* * *

Last minute snarkiness: I don't think I would have liked SGA as much if Ben Browder had gotten the job instead of Joe Flannigan. Something about him [ben] just annoys me.


End file.
